and I firmly believe that there remains a place in Britain for this type of investment if we are to meet the growing demand for food.” The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers also expressed its disappointment at the withdrawal. The British Cattle Veterinary Association, which leads the industry in managing the health and welfare of dairy cows in the UK, also took the steps of dismissing claims that Nocton Dairies would have been a "cow prison", saying its developers demonstrated a commitment to good welfare. Conclusion Whether or not this or indeed any so called 'super-dairy' is ever built, this controversy is likely to have a lasting impact on Britain's future dairy policy. Supporters claim large scale farming offers opportunities to meet food security and climate change challenges of the future. Research by opponents counter this hypothesis with an argument that the economics of the system are unsustainable in a report titled Weighing the economics of dairy farms; however, the figures used in this report have also been heavily criticised by the industry's leading providers of economics data DairyCo, part of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, saying that the different systems are not being compared on a like for like basis and are ‘astonishingly naïve’. However, there are concerns that any similar proposal, if successful, would set a precedent for the development of large-scale farming systems more commonly associated with the US where such units are known as CAFOs - although with the definition of a dairy CAFO being over 750 cows, DairyCo, the dairy industry's levy and advisory body, says there are already at least 12 such farms operating successfully and without issues - as proven by the lack of media interest in these farms - in England. Comments made by at the 2011 NFU conference by food critic Jay Rayner during a panel discussion entitled ‘Is modern agriculture palatable?’ pointed to the industry being at fault. Mr Rayner told farmers that perception that the public would disapprove of such a development had been given fuel by a lack of positive PR. “The industry has to look at how it communicates to the media, not just to the industry and government. Basically it needs to work out a way to kill those page three Daily Mail stories which misrepresent what agriculture is. There is a failure of imagination. You need to employ some PR people to communicate